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Life at sea was hard, with few amenities. A seaman never got more than about three and a half hours of sleep at a time, and the work could be dangerous and unpleasant. Crew, captains, and mates might or might not get along well. Everyone who went to sea experienced both its romance and its hardships; yet, once at home it was easy to look back on the great days aboard ship.
A century or more ago, jobs were readily available on the schooners—the tractor-trailer trucks of the day— sailing up and down the East Coast, or on the hundreds of merchant vessels crossing the world’s oceans. Vessels moved the products of farms, factories, quarries, mines, mills, and the sea.
Today, we still depend on ships for many goods. A large modern container ship operated by approximately twenty-four crew members carries as much cargo as fifty Down Easters did, in a fraction of the time, with many conveniences on board. Life at sea still has its perils and hardships, but it is very different from the days of Maine’s sailing ships.
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